Going Blue

DARREL AUBERTINE, of Cape Vincent, and June F. O'Neill, chair of state Democratic committee, react to Aubertine's win for the state Senate race against Will Barclay, as supporters cheered at the Italian-American Club in Watertown.

Aubertine's win turns tide for Democrats and Spitzer in New York

By Mark Alesse

Despite an overwhelming Republican registration advantage, Assembly Democrat Darrel Aubertine beat Republican Will Barclay in a special election this week in the 48th Senate District north of Syracuse. The Senate is now one seat away from going to the Democrats, and with it, the state Republican Party will be officially declared dead -- a victim of suicide.

The legacy of former Gov. George Pataki and Sen. Joe Bruno will be secured in state history -- together, they led the state Republican Party over the cliff.

In post-Pataki New York, Senate Republicans had lost all their ideological moorings, and abandoned their base. To lifelong Republicans, they came to be seen as standing for nothing but re-election and holding onto power -- and little else.

You can argue that it wasn't Pataki and Bruno's fault -- that New York had it written into its demographic DNA to eventually become a Democratic state.

But when a heavily Republican district like the 48th goes to the Democrats, there is a reason. The people of Upstate, like myself, who have traditionally leaned Republican, have to face the fact that for the next 10 to 20 years, the Republican Party will be dead.

The only course open to us will be to vote for conservative and centrist Democrats, like Darrel Aubertine, and for that matter, Gov. Spitzer, who we can hope will be able to steer their party toward the realistic and fiscally responsible policies once embraced by Republicans.

Although he's had a rocky start, Gov. Spitzer is a strong and intellectually gifted person. Once he has a Democratic state Senate to work with, I think he will find his stride and begin to solve the seemingly intractable problems of the past decade.

Gov. Spitzer's agenda includes many policies that Republicans can support and should encourage. Fiscal responsibility, reducing the costs of doing business, legislative rules reform, and health-care reform have been caught in the gridlock of legislative politics.

Once the Senate Democrats have the majority, Spitzer will be free to lead the state as he was meant to do, and to enact promises made during the campaign -- promises we hoped he could initiate on Day One, but which will be just as important if achieved in Term One.

Mark Alesse, of Delmar, was a lobbyist for small business for 18 years and worked as a staffer in both the Assembly and Senate.